Our family arrived safely in Madang at the Pacific Orientation Course.  As expected, the weather here is hot, not Ghana ANGRY-HOT, but hot none the less.  It’s the humidity that gets you.

Classes start this morning, but we’ve been reading ahead and learning things we’d like to share.   There are several different typical roles of missionaries.  The traditional role is going in to save the souls of the lost, suffering hardship in the process, but often neglecting the “other” needs of the people.  I prefer the role of a student or researcher, moving to a new place of genuine discovery where the missionary does not come to bring God, but goes to discover God already at work and present.  This may be a little difficult to swallow for some of our partners, but rest assured, we are serving a vital role providing for the medical needs of both the nationals and the fellow missionaries.  This is NOT about us, but we're seeing God working everywhere in almost everyone's lives.

Coming to Papua New Guinea (PNG) from our past is best summed up in this quote,  “Rare is the person whose sense of psychological well-being is so secure that the virtual demolition of his/her former social identity is not frankly too much to imagine, accept, and undergo.”  Not that we are there, but we hope to get there some day.  We are becoming as a child and doing our best to leave in the past who we were, to become the children God wants us to be.  It is not easy, there are reminders all around us when working in the clinic, and our ego constantly gets in the way.  To quote Nicodemus in John 3:4 “How can a person who is old be born again?”

On to other things!  The photos we take make this place look like the paradise that it is.  Even the bucket shower this morning was wonderful.  Cool and refreshing, yet very basic.  Life here happens at a slower pace, because it simply takes longer to do everything.

Another thing learned since leaving the US, living in two cultures costs us something.  If we make deep friendships overseas which we have (and will continue to do), we can never completely go home again.  There will be the pain of separation in either place.  That is the price we pay for loving and being loved in more than one place.  This not only hurts us, but our daughters as well.  Fortunately, this will also grow us closer as a family and closer to our nurturing Father.

 

 

 

 

 

 



 

 

 

That's all for now...